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DOE OSTI2026

Rational design of high-performance low-loading oxygen reduction catalysts for alkaline fuel cells

The lack of mechanistic understanding and catalyst design principles for alkaline electrolytes, especially for the sluggish oxygen reduction reaction, has impeded the advancement of alkaline fuel cells. Here, in this study, we propose a modified volcano plot and apply this rationale to strategically design Pt nanosheets with PdH x nanosheets substrates. This catalyst exhibited high stability with a specific activity of 1.71 mA cm −2 at 0.95 V versus the reversible hydrogen electrode, surpassing the benchmark of Pt/C by 49-fold. Spectroscopic, electrochemical and electron microscopic characterizations revealed that such performance enhancement originated from tensile-strained Pt{111} facets, improving oxidative stability and suppressing carbon corrosion. In fuel cell testing, the catalyst enabled a peak power density of 1.67 W cm −2 with a loading of 10 µg PGM Cathode cm −2 . Further optimization delivered a peak power density of 21.7 W mg −1 PGM Cathode+Anode with a total specific catalyst cost US$\$$1.27 kW −1 , surpassing the US Department of Energy’s Pt group metal loading and cost targets. This study provides valuable insights into catalyst design for the alkaline oxygen reduction reaction.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2025

Dynamic nanodomains dictate macroscopic properties in lead halide perovskites

Lead halide perovskites have emerged as promising materials for solar energy conversion and X-ray detection owing to their remarkable optoelectronic properties. However, the microscopic origins of their superior performance remain unclear. Here we show that low-symmetry dynamic nanodomains present in the high-symmetry average cubic phases, whose characteristics are dictated by the A-site cation, govern the macroscopic behaviour. We combine X-ray diffuse scattering, inelastic neutron spectroscopy, hyperspectral photoluminescence microscopy and machine-learning-assisted molecular dynamics simulations to directly correlate local nanoscale dynamics with macroscopic optoelectronic response. Our approach reveals that methylammonium-based perovskites form densely packed, anisotropic dynamic nanodomains with out-of-phase octahedral tilting, whereas formamidinium-based systems develop sparse, isotropic, spherical nanodomains with in-phase tilting, even when crystallography reveals cubic symmetry on average. We demonstrate that these sparsely distributed isotropic nanodomains present in formamidinium-based systems reduce electronic dynamic disorder, resulting in a beneficial optoelectronic response, thereby enhancing the performance of formamidinium-based lead halide perovskite devices. By elucidating the influence of the A-site cation on local dynamic nanodomains, and consequently, on the macroscopic properties, we propose leveraging this relationship to engineer the optoelectronic response of these materials, propelling further advancements in perovskite-based photovoltaics, optoelectronics and X-ray imaging.

Materials Science↗

DOE OSTI2025

An electronic microemulsion phase emerging from a quantum crystal-to-liquid transition

Strongly interacting electronic systems often exhibit a complicated phase diagram that results from the competition between different quantum ground states. One feature of these phase diagrams is the emergence of microemulsion phases, where regions of different phases self-organize across multiple length scales. The experimental characterization of these microemulsions can pose considerable challenges, as the long-range Coulomb interaction microscopically mingles with the competing states. Here we observe the signatures of the microemulsion between an electronic Wigner crystal and an electron liquid in a MoSe 2 monolayer using cryogenic reflectance and magneto-optical spectroscopy. We find that the transition into this microemulsion state is marked by anomalies in exciton reflectance, spin susceptibility and umklapp scattering, establishing it as a distinct phase of electronic matter.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

DOE OSTI2025

Measurement of phonon angular momentum

In condensed matter, angular momentum is intimately related to the emergence of topological quantum states, including chiral superconductivity, quantum spin liquids and various chiral quasiparticles. Recently, it has been predicted that microscopic lattice excitations, known as phonons, can carry finite angular momentum, leading to specific physical properties of materials. However, phonon angular momentum has not yet been observed directly. Here, in this study, we demonstrate that angular momentum conservation results in a macroscopic mechanical torque when applying a time-reversal symmetry-breaking thermal gradient along the chiral axis of single-crystal tellurium. We probe this torque using a cantilever-based device and establish that it changes sign by flipping the chirality or thermal gradient. This behavior disappears in polycrystalline samples that lack a preferred chirality. Our experimental results align well with theoretical calculations. We provide compelling evidence for phonon angular momentum, which might enable quantum states with potential applications in microelectronics.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2024

Observation of quantum entanglement with top quarks at the ATLAS detector

Abstract Entanglement is a key feature of quantum mechanics 1–3 , with applications in fields such as metrology, cryptography, quantum information and quantum computation 4–8 . It has been observed in a wide variety of systems and length scales, ranging from the microscopic 9–13 to the macroscopic 14–16 . However, entanglement remains largely unexplored at the highest accessible energy scales. Here we report the highest-energy observation of entanglement, in top–antitop quark events produced at the Large Hadron Collider, using a proton–proton collision dataset with a centre-of-mass energy of √s = 13 TeV and an integrated luminosity of 140 inverse femtobarns (fb) −1 recorded with the ATLAS experiment. Spin entanglement is detected from the measurement of a single observableD, inferred from the angle between the charged leptons in their parent top- and antitop-quark rest frames. The observable is measured in a narrow interval around the top–antitop quark production threshold, at which the entanglement detection is expected to be significant. It is reported in a fiducial phase space defined with stable particles to minimize the uncertainties that stem from the limitations of the Monte Carlo event generators and the parton shower model in modelling top-quark pair production. The entanglement marker is measured to beD = −0.537 ± 0.002 (stat.) ± 0.019 (syst.) for$$340\,{\rm{GeV}} < {m}_{t\bar{t}} < 380\,{\rm{GeV}}$$ 340 GeV < m t t ¯ < 380 GeV . The observed result is more than five standard deviations from a scenario without entanglement and hence constitutes the first observation of entanglement in a pair of quarks and the highest-energy observation of entanglement so far.

Science & Technology - Other Topics↗

DOE OSTI2025

Signal amplification in a solid-state sensor through asymmetric many-body echo

Electronic spins of nitrogen–vacancy centres in diamond constitute a promising system for micro- and nanoscale magnetic sensing, because of their operation under ambient conditions, ease of placement in close proximity to sensing targets and biological compatibility. At high densities, the electronic spins interact through dipolar coupling, which typically limits but can also potentially enhance sensing performance. Here we report the experimental demonstration of many-body signal amplification in a solid-state, room-temperature quantum sensor. Our approach uses time-reversed two-axis-twisting interactions, engineered through dynamical control of the quantization axis and Floquet engineering in a two-dimensional ensemble of nitrogen–vacancy centres. We observe that optimal amplification occurs when the backward evolution time equals twice the forward evolution time, in sharp contrast to the conventional Loschmidt echo. These observations can be understood as resulting from an underlying time-reversed mirror symmetry of the microscopic dynamics, providing key insights into signal amplification and opportunities for practical entanglement-enhanced quantum sensing.

quantum information↗

DOE OSTI2025

Visualizing interaction-driven restructuring of quantum Hall edge states

Many topological phases host gapless boundary modes that can be dramatically modified by electronic interactions. Even for the long-studied edge modes of quantum Hall phases, forming at the boundaries of two-dimensional (2D) electron systems, the nature of such interaction-induced changes has been elusive. Despite advances made using local probes, key experimental challenges persist: the lack of direct information about the internal structure of edge states on microscopic scales, and complications from edge disorder. Here, we use scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) to image pristine electrostatically defined quantum Hall edge states in graphene with high spatial resolution and demonstrate how correlations dictate the structures of edge channels on both magnetic and atomic length scales. For integer quantum Hall states in the zeroth Landau level, we show that interactions renormalize the edge velocity, dictate the spatial profile for copropagating modes, and induce unexpected edge valley polarization that differ from those of the bulk. While some of our findings can be understood by mean-field theory, others show breakdown of this picture, highlighting the roles of edge fluctuations and inter-channel couplings. We also extend our measurements to spatially resolve the edge state of fractional quantum Hall phases and detect spectroscopic signatures of interactions in this chiral Luttinger liquid. Furthermore, our study establishes STM as a promising tool for exploring edge physics of the rapidly expanding 2D topological phases, including newly realized fractional Chern insulators.

Electronic properties and materials↗

DOE OSTI2026

Symmetry, microscopy and spectroscopy signatures of altermagnetism

The recent discovery of altermagnetism was in part motivated by the research of compensated magnets towards highly scalable spintronic technologies. Simultaneously, altermagnetism shares the anisotropic higher-partial-wave nature of ordering with unconventional superfluid phases, which have been at the forefront of research for the past several decades. These examples illustrate the interest in altermagnetism from a broad range of science and technology perspectives. Here we review the symmetry, microscopy and spectroscopy signatures of altermagnetism. We describe the spontaneously broken and retained symmetries that delineate altermagnetism as a distinct phase of matter with d-, g- or i-wave compensated collinear spin ordering. In materials ranging from weakly interacting metals to strongly correlated insulators, the microscopic crystal-structure realizations of the altermagnetic symmetries feature a characteristic ferroic order of anisotropic higher-partial-wave components of atomic-scale spin densities. These symmetry and microscopy signatures of altermagnetism are directly reflected in spin-dependent electronic spectra and responses. Here, we review salient band-structure features originating from the altermagnetic ordering, and from its interplay with spin–orbit coupling and topological phenomena. Throughout, we compare altermagnetism with traditional ferromagnetism and Néel antiferromagnetism, and with magnetic phases with symmetry-protected compensated non-collinear spin orders. We accompany the theoretical discussions with references to relevant experiments.

Jungwirth, Tomas [Czech Academy of Sciences, Pragu↗

DOE OSTI2026

Electronic origin of reorganization energy in interfacial electron transfer

Electron transfer (ET) reactions underpin energy conversion and chemical transformations in both biological and a biological systems. The efficiency of any ET process relies on achieving a desired ET rate within an optimal driving force range. Marcus theory provides a microscopic framework for understanding the activation free energy—and therefore the rate—of ET in terms of a key parameter: the reorganization energy. For electrified solid–liquid interfaces, it has long been conventionally understood that only factors in the electrolyte phase are responsible for determining the reorganization energy and that the electronic density of states (DOS) of the electrode only serves to dictate the number of thermally accessible channels for ET. Here we show instead that the electrode DOS plays a central role in governing the reorganization energy, far outweighing its conventionally assumed role. Using atomically layered heterostructures, we tune the DOS of graphene and measure outer-sphere ET kinetics. We find the ensuing variation in ET rate arises from strong modulation in a reorganization energy associated with image potential localization in the electrode. Here we redefine the traditional paradigm of heterogeneous ET kinetics, revealing a deeper role of the electrode electronic structure in interfacial reactivity.

Electrochemistry↗

DOE OSTI2026

Digital quantum magnetism on a trapped-ion quantum computer

Digital quantum matter—realized when discrete quantum gates approximate continuous time evolution—is susceptible to heating into chaotic, structureless states. If digitization errors are adequately suppressed, a long-lived transient regime of approximately energy-conserving dynamics can be observed on gate-based quantum computers. Conservation of energy, in turn, enables the exploration of a wide variety of complex behaviours observed in equilibrium systems, ranging from the non-trivial microscopic origins of thermalization itself to the stabilization of effective models hosting exotic emergent properties. Here we use Quantinuum’s H2 quantum computer to simulate digitized dynamics of the quantum Ising model, suppressing digitization errors well enough to observe thermalization on timescales that severely challenge classical simulation methods. Relaxation of an inhomogeneous state reveals an emergent hydrodynamics owing to approximate energy conservation and we compute the associated diffusion constant. By reprogramming our simulations to take place on a triangular lattice with periodic boundary conditions, we observe thermalization consistent with emergent gauge and topological constraints resulting from lattice frustration. Furthermore, our results were enabled by continued advances in two-qubit gate quality (native partial entangler fidelities of 99.94(1)%) and establish digital quantum computers as powerful tools for studying (effectively) continuous-time dynamics.

Information theory and computation↗

DOE OSTI2025

Label-free nanoscopy of cell metabolism by ultrasensitive reweighted visible stimulated Raman scattering

Nanoscopic imaging of cell metabolism is hindered by the incompatibility of small metabolites with fluorescent dyes and the limited resolution of imaging mass spectrometry. We present ultrasensitive reweighted visible stimulated Raman scattering (URV-SRS), a label-free vibrational nanoscopy technique that enables multiplexed detection of metabolic nanostructures within cells. We developed an extensively chirped spectral focusing visible SRS microscope that achieves a detection limit of 4,000 molecules and introduced a self-supervised learning-based denoiser to robustly suppress non-independent SRS noise by over 7.2 dB. The instrumentation-based signal enhancement and computation-based noise suppression synergistically improved the detection sensitivity by 50 times over near-infrared SRS. Leveraging this enhanced sensitivity, we further pushed the resolution to nanoscopic levels by introducing Fourier reweighting to amplify sub-100 nm spatial frequencies previously overwhelmed by noise. Validated by Fourier ring correlation, URV-SRS achieves a lateral resolution of 86 nm in cellular imaging. Here, we applied URV-SRS to elucidate the reprogramming of metabolic nanostructures associated with virus replication in Vero E6 host cells and to compositionally delineate subcellular fatty acid synthesis in engineered Escherichia coli, demonstrating its capability towards nanoscopic spatial metabolomics.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2026

Integrated fluorescence light microscopy-guided cryo-focused ion beam-milling for in situ montage cryo-ET

Cryogenic-electron tomography (cryo-ET) permits the in situ visualization of biological macromolecules at the molecular level. Owing to the variable thickness of cells, tissues and organisms, frozen specimens may need to be thinned by cryo-focused ion beam (FIB) milling to produce thin (<500 nm) cryo-lamellae suitable for cryo-ET. Locating regions of interest remains a challenge because untargeted milling can lead to inadvertent ablation and removal of regions of interest. Correlative light and electron microscopy, combined with cryo-FIB milling, can guide the identification of labeled targets in the cellular milieu. Multiple transfers between cryo-imaging instruments, cumbersome correlation algorithms, limited accuracy and low throughput have hindered the routine adoption of cryo-FIB milling within a multimodal correlative workflow for in situ structural biology. Here, in this study, we present a workflow for 3D correlative cryo-fluorescence light microscopy-FIB-ET that streamlines fluorescence light microscopy-guided FIB milling, improving throughput while preserving both structural and contextual information. The complete integration of hardware and software described here minimizes sample contamination from cross-platform exchanges and greatly enhances the efficiency of 3D targeting in cryo-milling. We then describe procedures for implementing montage parallel array cryo-ET (MPACT), which can be easily adapted to any modern life-science transmission electron microscope. MPACT supports high-throughput cryo-ET acquisitions (10 tilt series in 1.5 h) for structure determination and comprehensive contextual understanding of macromolecules within their native surroundings. A complete session from sample preparation to MPACT data processing takes 5−7 d for an individual experienced in both cryo-EM and cryo-FIB milling.

Yang, Jie E. [Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (Uni↗

DOE OSTI2024

Genomic and morphological characterization of Knufia obscura isolated from the Mars 2020 spacecraft assembly facility

Members of the family Trichomeriaceae, belonging to the Chaetothyriales order and the Ascomycota phylum, are known for their capability to inhabit hostile environments characterized by extreme temperatures, oligotrophic conditions, drought, or presence of toxic compounds. The genus Knufia encompasses many polyextremophilic species. In this report, the genomic and morphological features of the strain FJI-L2-BK-P2 presented, which was isolated from the Mars 2020 mission spacecraft assembly facility located at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The identification is based on sequence alignment for marker genes, multi-locus sequence analysis, and whole genome sequence phylogeny. The morphological features were studied using a diverse range of microscopic techniques (bright field, phase contrast, differential interference contrast and scanning electron microscopy). The phylogenetic marker genes of the strain FJI-L2-BK-P2 exhibited highest similarities with type strain of Knufia obscura (CBS 148926 T ) that was isolated from the gas tank of a car in Italy. To validate the species identity, whole genomes of both strains (FJI-L2-BK-P2 and CBS 148926 T ) were sequenced, annotated, and strain FJI-L2-BK-P2 was confirmed as K. obscura. The morphological analysis and description of the genomic characteristics of K. obscura FJI-L2-BK-P2 may contribute to refining the taxonomy of Knufia species. Key morphological features are reported in this K. obscura strain, resembling microsclerotia and chlamydospore-like propagules. These features known to be characteristic features in black fungi which could potentially facilitate their adaptation to harsh environments.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2025

A bi-channel aided stitching of atomic force microscopy images

Microscopy is an essential tool in scientific research, enabling the visualization of structures at micro- and nanoscale resolutions. However, the field of microscopy often encounters limitations in field-of-view (FOV), restricting the amount of sample that can be imaged in a single capture. To overcome this limitation, image stitching techniques have been developed to seamlessly merge multiple overlapping images into a single, high-resolution composite. The images collected from microscope need to be optimally stitched before accurate physical information can be extracted from post analysis. However, the existing stitching tools either struggle to stitch images together when the microscopy images are feature sparse or cannot address all the transformations of images when performing image stitching. To address these issues, we propose a bi-channel aided feature-based image stitching method and demonstrate its use on Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) generated Pantoea sp. YR343 biofilm and PTO thin film sample images as experimental data. The topographical channel image of AFM data captures the morphological details of the sample, and a stitched topographical image is desired for researchers. We utilize the amplitude and phase channels of AFM data to maximize the matching features and to estimate the position of the original topographical images and show that the proposed bi-channel aided stitching method outperforms the traditional direct stitching approach in AFM topographical image stitching task. Here, we demonstrated the application on AFM, but similar approaches could be employed of optical microscopy with brightfield and fluorescence channels. We believe this proposed workflow can serve as a valuable augmentation strategy for microscopy image stitching tasks and will benefit the experimentalist to avoid erroneous analysis and discovery due to incorrect stitching.

Atomic force microscopy↗

DOE OSTI2026

Image processing pipeline for AI-driven nanoparticle megalibrary characterization

Recent innovations have made it possible to produce megalibraries, millions of structurally and compositionally distinct nanoparticles on a chip. These megalibraries yield vast volumes of data that are impossible to analyze manually, necessitating the development of automated tools. In previous work, we created a binary classification machine learning model to select quality nanoparticle images for downstream analysis. In this work, we show that adding a custom image processing step before training can produce significantly higher-performing models in a fraction of the time and make them more robust to different image noise levels and microscope acquisition settings. The image processing pipeline proposed here effectively cleans raw nanoparticle images, enhances key features, and allows us to use much lower resolution images and simpler neural network model architectures. These features result in higher performance and significant cost savings. Experiments demonstrate superior performance relative to baseline, including an 18.2% improvement in recall and a 13.1% increase in accuracy. Given the high cost of downstream analysis, it is critical to minimize false positives, and our best-performing model reaches a precision of 95.9% and a weighted F-score of 95.1% on an unseen test set. Additionally, model training time is reduced from hours to less than a minute. We also show that, using this custom image processing pipeline, model performance is significantly improved at lower pixel resolutions compared to downsizing alone. We expect that adopting this pipeline for AI-driven automated nanoparticle characterization will allow researchers to rapidly and accurately analyze much greater volumes of data, thereby accelerating materials discovery.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2026

Plasma screening in mid-charged ions observed by K-shell line emission

Dense plasma environment affects the electronic structure of ions via variations of the microscopic electrical fields, also known as plasma screening. This effect can be either estimated by simplified analytical models, or by computationally expensive and to date unverified numerical calculations. We have experimentally quantified plasma screening from the energy shifts of the bound-bound transitions in matter driven by the x-ray free electron laser (XFEL). This was enabled by identification of detailed electronic configurations of the observed Kα, Kβ and Kγ lines. This work paves the way for improving plasma screening models including connected effects like ionization potential depression and continuum lowering, which will advance the understanding of atomic physics in the Warm Dense Matter regime.

Physics - Plasma physics↗

DOE OSTI2025

Dark-field X-ray microscopy with structured illumination for three-dimensional imaging

Dark-field X-ray microscopy is a lens-based technique that enables real-space imaging of heterogeneous micro- and meso-scale ordered materials. However, achieving accurate three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction often requires meticulous sample alignment or rastering, requiring complex rotational setups and extended acquisition times. To address these challenges, we introduce a structured illumination technique optimized for 3D imaging of ordered materials at sub-micrometer length scales. Our approach employs a coded aperture to spatially modulate the incident X-ray beam, enabling 3D structural reconstruction from images captured at various aperture positions. Unlike current 3D imaging approaches, which often rely on rotational or rastering methods, our technique uses scanning X-ray silhouettes of the coded aperture for depth resolution along the diffraction axis. This eliminates the need for sample rotation or rastering, resulting in a highly stable and efficient imaging modality. We validated the efficacy of this approach through experimental imaging of an isolated twin domain within a bulk single crystal of an iron pnictide using a dark-field X-ray microscope. This advancement aligns with the enhanced brightness upgrades of modern synchrotron radiation facilities, unlocking new possibilities for high-resolution imaging of ordered materials.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

DOE OSTI2026

Intricacies of frustrated magnetism in the Kondo metal YbAgGe

The combination of localized magnetic moments, their frustration and interaction with itinerant electrons is a key challenge of condensed matter physics. Frustrated magnetic interactions promote degenerate ground states with enhanced fluctuations, a topic that is predominantly studied in magnetic insulators. The coupling between itinerant and localized electrons in metals add complexity to the problem, and is presently formulated only for extreme cases in which the itinerant electrons mediate exchange between localized spins (RKKY interaction) or suppress the formation of magnetic moments (Kondo screening). Here, we report an in-depth experimental study of the distorted Kagome metal YbAgGe, unravelling the open questions of how frustration, localized magnetism and itinerant electrons are intertwined in frustrated Kondo metals. We find that coupled itinerant and localized electrons give rise to dynamic magnetic correlations below T* ≈ 20 K. At lower temperature, frustrated magnetic interactions establish anisotropic magnetic short-range correlations that culminate into antiferromagnetic long-range order below T N = 0.68 K with a significantly reduced modulated magnetic moment. We show that local moment Hamiltonians can yield limited understanding of the microscopic behaviour in frustrated metals, and prompt the extension of more sophisticated model Hamiltonians incorporating itinerant effects.

Mazzone, Daniel G. [PSI Center for Neutron and Muo↗